Archive for September, 2011

A trend in the Portland comic scene, perhaps in indie-comics in general, is that of symmetry in story telling. Perhaps there is a proper term in the comic book community for it, but basically it storytelling in the of shapes and design. A notable artist that plays around with this idea is Brendan McCarthy who I have become a fan of in recent years… with that said, he tells a cohesive story along with his artistry.

Now lately, I’ve seen books lately that have what I would call wonderful design work, symmetry and it’s pretty to look at it. However, the one thing that seems to be lacking is a story… This is a trend in art that comes and goes through out art history (re: Dada, Bauhaus, Post-Modernism, whatevs) so I don’t want to come of critical of anyone who wants to buck the system, though I suppose I want my comics to at least have a story… such as why is Pentagon upset at Arbelos. Or why the Reuleaux Polygon harbors such a grudge against Triquetra? It’s hardly Aquaman versus Black Manta…

Sigh… either way, I don’t completely get it, so I don’t want to shit on the trend without being completely knowledgeable on the purpose behind new ideas; but, I’m pontificating here so let me stop for the moment as I am probably rehashing at this point.

So, there is that strip… and probably the last one for a little bit. I was totally inactive for over half the year and then I spewed like six of these fuckers within the week! I do have more strips planned for the next while sooner than later, but for now… there you go. Thank you, and GOOD NIGHT!

So, several years ago there was this odd pirate trend that was going on, at least here in Portland, OR. There was even a store that opened up at the mall devoted to only pirate memorabilia and other nonsense… I thought it was lame.

After everybody got tired playing pirates, everybody jumped on the zombie trend… which was cute of course, but like any other trend, it was beat to the ground (which is a shame, because there is a really decent zombie counter-culture by several artist and writers out there and it’s fairly ruined for me… I was on a dating site (on still actually, but hope to not be it for much longer) and some of the questions people ask me is “How would you protect yourself during a zombie outbreak?” The clever answer would be “grab a few hi-ball glasses, and play some Xaiver Cugat records” (more of you hip-types with get that joke… notice I didn’t say hipsters.) Instead I say “There is no such thing as zombies, but I like to play shuffleboard.”

So, I was trying to guess the next trend (I think there was an alien one before all of those others) so it’s probably going to be cowboys, which would be something. However, I would like to think that the next big trend will be bears… not those big mammals that can rip you apart and look cute when they do it, but those huge hairy gay dudes… now that would be interesting… Spencer’s and Hot Topic will start selling leather straps and penis slings. And as with any other trend, I’m sure I’d just be as dull as ever and sit that one out.

So, this is actually based on two situations… The ICP kid actually had to do with another time when I was waiting for the bus… you know what, I’m going to save that for another strip.

What actually happened was, I was in the mood for a Mounds bar but really didn’t want one on account that they are hardly good for you. So, on my way to the produce aisle I saw that they had several different candy bars for two for one… so I was entertaining the idea until I saw this woman who… well, quite frankly wasn’t healthy… she grabbed a bunch (more than six) and looked at me with dead eyes. I told my friend Laicee about this, and she said that “Hey, apples taste good at least.” and I informed her bitterly that “Apples taste appley!” I mean, I like apples fine, but I’m more a grape/berry dude… but I am off topic… again.

Now, the title is Latin for apple and something else… sort of like a high brow dick joke. The original title was “Appley”, but seeing that that’s the “punchline” I opted for the high road, notreallyatall. But yeah, the ICP kid… look out for that strip.

So, this would be an example of not having enough panels to finish the strip… the fifth panel would have been the kid at the shrink explaining his hatered for Mexicans and Spongebob…

The blacked out area explained that a little, but I tried to cram it in there and you couldn’t read it anyway… besides, the punchline is that of the mother’s seething anger and that works just fine. I drew this probably last year, earlier even but I felt that the last panel didn’t work… it works just fine. You can say that this is a throw away, but I did put some time into this, and didn’t want to waste an otherwise decent strip, so there is that.

This is also a perfect example of why I don’t offer advice half the time… eh, I thought I was awake but apparently I’m fading fast… back to bed.

The original title was “Dead People Don’t Make Fresh Salsa” because my Grandmother Rose made the best fresh salsa (and it’s also a play on the Steve Martin film, “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”)… nothing quite like that woman’s cooking, but I was afraid to offend my family, and I do not want to suffer the wrath of my aunts and or cousins… Ah Hell, I’ll deal with it. So… this summer not only did I lose my Grandmother Rose (August 28th, which so happened to be my niece Marissa’s 18th birthday), but I lost my Grandmother Michela (May 12th, Mother’s Day) so, i begin and ended my fairly lame summer with the deaths of my parent’s parents; and. it was not a good year to be my grandmother (which would have been a good title as well)… though you can only lose them twice.

As far as my grandmothers go, I am of course saddened by their passing(s). I haven’t kept in touch with them in years (so there is the guilt part of that) Though both were in poor health and both of them were strong willed, stubborn and sturdy women, that with them now gone I like to think that they are both at peace. I did love them both and feel that they helped (if you can call it that) shape me to who I am today… fearful of little angry Mexican women… kidding, maybesortofkinda.

Now the conversation within the strip itself with Gordon and Stephenie was possibly even more awkward in real life and I just can’t remember what was said, which would have made for even a better strip… No, the drawings don’t do them justice and strangely I couldn’t draw me for the life of me… I mean, have you seen these strips… it doesn’t look like much to draw and I am messing up my own “style” which isn’t so much style as it is something unlike a doodle… a rather involved doodle, but whatevs… I mean, it took me 30 minutes to do this whole thing. Anyway, I miss those old ladies and the world of Mexican food is more bland without them.

So, a few things… for one, I fucked up the drivers side of the car so never mind that. The girl in the strip was someone I was dating for a short while “TJ” but she told me shortly after this that she wasn’t ready to date people… and then she shortly thereafter started dating someone else… sigh.

Also, I tend to mix up Zooey Deschanel with Eliza Dushku because of their names being… eh, what they are. But yeah… this is the first Cat Boxing strip in I don’t know how long… hmm, it very well may be the first one this year. I actually have a few stockpiled as I was tracking down the driver disc for my hopelessly outdated HP printer/scanner. Anyway, more coming soon, dick-joke fans rejoice!

So, after an extended hiatus I finally finished several strips… However I’ve since lost my driver disc from my printer and for some reason the site to replace said driver is not wanting to load right now… Stay tuned